


Vampires: Your Relationship With the Undead

by vampiregirlgang



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-08-03 07:21:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16321700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampiregirlgang/pseuds/vampiregirlgang
Summary: When in a small town where seemingly nothing happens, Cherry is up late one night due to her intolerable insomnia, and she witnesses a fatal stabbing from her window, her life finally takes an interesting turn. Cherry decides that she needs to educate herself on the underground world of vampires and getting the facts beyond the myth, because what she saw was obviously a vampire slaying, right? Along the way, Cherry meets an impossibly beautiful girl, encounters creatures of the dead, and gets into trouble with her asshole of a best friend, Jinx.Cherry and Jinx team up together (Jinx a bit unwillingly) to find out the secrets of vampires and how they can stop them from killing oblivious humans.





	1. Interfectorem

The rain outside was pounding on the roofs of the neatly lined suburban homes. Dark had fallen quickly over the pre-autumn town and the rain clouds were partially to blame. There wasn’t much foot-traffic at this hour in this neighborhood - or town for that matter. It seemed that everyone was comfortably tucked into bed at the time, all but Cherry.

Cherry hung out her window, butterfly knife in hand, looking out to the empty street. She often did this when it rained. She liked the peace the rain brought to her muddled head. There was always so much going on in Cherry’s head and in her life that she barely even caught her breath while she slept because of her god-awful insomnia. 

So that brought her here, half outside, practicing her tricks with her knife, while soaking her obnoxiously red hair in the steady rainfall. The quiet lulled her into an almost sleep-like state with her daydreams (or regular dreams, rather, considering the time of night) of the future and what the next day may bring her. The quiet that had fallen outside was suddenly, and quite unexpectedly interrupted by the sound of shoes on pavement. Cherry snapped her head toward the sound, trying to see if something interesting was finally going to happen in this mundane, family town. 

There was a figure in a dark hoodie with the hood up, clad in dark skinny jeans and the coolest pair of platforms that Cherry had ever seen. The figure walked at a fast pace, quickly approaching that one flickering streetlight which ill lit the street. Cherry was intrigued, but not too interested because it probably was just some kid who snuck out to buy some cigs off Jinx, the local drug dealer to eighth-graders who want to be cool and housewives who enjoy their Xanax a little too much. 

Cherry knew Jinx well, considering they’ve known each other since they were five and they were neighbors. Cherry was a little confused as to why Jinx would be dealing so close to his house, but Cherry just wrote it off as Jinx getting lazy. 

The figure under the streetlight looked around nervously, tapping its foot like it had some sort of nervous tick. The figure reached into its pocket and felt around, grasped something, then nodded to itself. Cherry shifted her spot on her windowsill to get a closer view. More footsteps came into earshot.They came from the opposite direction, spinning the figure around to face the new figure. The new figure was not, in fact, Jinx. This figure was a girl in a bright yellow raincoat and matching rain boots. She sloshed her way through the rain, under the same streetlight the figure waited under. The figure nodded to the girl and the girl held up her hands, and flashed a very, very toothy grin. Then the figure lunged at her, drawing whatever was in its pocket out in its left hand. 

The figure silently plunged the object into the girl’s chest and the girl clawed at the figure’s face. The girl’s efforts were futile. The encounter was almost silent, most of the scuffling drowned out by the ping-pangs of the rain and the rolling thunder in the background. After the girl ceased her struggle and lied limply on the pavement, the figure put its platform boot on her shoulder and pulled what looked like a stake to Cherry out and wiped it on the girl’s raincoat. The figure promptly nodded at the corpse and walked away with the same nervous and quickened pace it arrived in.

Cherry could not believe what the hell she just witnessed. Did that person really just kill that girl across the street from Cherry’s house? Was Cherry finally asleep and just dreaming? What the fuck? Cherry was beyond confused and perplexed and, had she mentioned, what the fuck? 

Cherry ran a hand through her wet, red hair and wiped her eyes in an almost cartoon-like way. She could not wait until she could tell Jinx about what in the fuck she just saw, and bumming a cigarette off him wouldn’t be half bad, either.

***

“So, I'm there, hanging the fuck out of my window, minding my own business at midnight, and this motherfucker takes a fucking wooden stake out of his pocket and stabs the girl in the chest, and just fucking walked away! Like nothing even happened!” Cherry took a quick drag of her cigarette she coaxed out of Jinx for free in exchange for the riveting story she was telling. “Like, what the fuck is that all about? I watched someone die last night!”

 

Jinx widened his eyes in an almost comical way to fake his excitement at Cherry’s story. He pushed off the brick wall of the back of the 7/11 where they always caused trouble and Jinx took a long drag of his cigarette. Jinx had sandy blond hair that always stuck up in every direction, no matter how hard he tried to keep it down. He was clad in his usual all black ensemble, consisting of his ridiculously oversized Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids shirt, barely clinging on ripped black jeans, and his famous Doc Martens, Jinx looked like a typical mall goth, which was exactly what he was going for. 

Jinx afforded Cherry another sideways glance and then threw his cigarette onto the asphalt and stubbed it out with his heel.  
“Are you sure you actually saw that, or you didn’t just have like, i don’t fucking know,” Jinx made waving motions with his hands, as if he was going to grab an idea from the air. “Have a crazy fucking fever dream, or like hallucinate that shit?”

Cherry stomped her foot at his response, growing tired of Jinx’s resistance to believing her story. Cherry rolled her eyes and took a sharp and impatient drag of her cigarette. 

“No, Jinx, I didn’t fucking hallucinate or have a fucking fever dream about someone getting staked in the heart to fucking death. I don’t even watch vampire movies or any shit like that!” 

Cherry rolled her eyes in an exasperated way and started to walk away from Jinx. Cherry wasn’t eager to admit that she was a little hurt that Jinx, her best friend of over a decade, didn’t believe what she saw last night, but she very much was and stalked stormily off in the direction of her house. 

Behind her, Jinx ran a hand through his hair and smiled an amused smile at Cherry’s impatience.  
“Cherry!”Jinx stepped off the curb and started toward Cherry. “Fine, fine! So, what if i believe you? What do you wanna do about what you saw? Do you wanna call the fucking pigs about it?” 

Cherry whipped around and threw her hands up in an “I don’t fucking know” motion. She then turned back around and promptly huffed back to her house in anger. Jinx retreated back to his spot on the wall behind the 7/11 and lit another cigarette.

Cherry sat on her unmade bed in her equally unkempt room. She kept trying to make sense of the events of the night prior. Had it really happened or was Jinx right and it really was just a fever dream or some shit? 

But Cherry knew what she had to do. The fire-headed girl strapped on her big girl boots and threw on the nearest hoodie she could actually find in her pit of a room and left for the public library to find out what the fuck this all could mean.

***

 

The library was a large and unnecessarily grand building for the boring town in which Cherry resided in. It had intricate rod iron lamp posts out front with ball shaped, milk-colored lights on the top. Cherry liked to walk by the library at night to see the lights lit up - she thought they looked like moons floating along the brightly lit walkways. The building itself was made out of concrete blocks, carefully arranged according to color which made an interesting gray, checkered pattern. There were lion statues on the front steps, each one with its paw raised and mouth open. They were the guardians of the books.  
People in simple dress walked in and out of the library, some with stacks of books in arm, some with running children. Then there was Cherry.  
Cherry walked - or stomped, rather - up the steps of the library, dressed in all back and her big gothic platforms and her firetruck red hair. She wasn’t very inconspicuous among her townsfolk. 

She made a b-line for the Occult section of the library, ignoring the rehearsed greetings from the tired librarians.  
Cherry fervently scanned the section for books about vampires, trying to see if there was anything that would at least make a little bit of sense of what the hell Cherry witnessed the night before.  
Just as Cherry settled on a book called Vampires: The Facts Behind the Myths, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Annoyed and confused, Cherry turned her head to see who was bothering as she just got ready to read her book.  
Suddenly, Cherry wasn’t very angry anymore. The person attached to the finger that tapped her shoulder was the most beautiful girl Cherry had ever seen in her whole life. 

No joke. 

Like, legitimately, the most beautiful girl Cherry had ever had the absolute privilege to lay her eyes on.  
She had mousy brown, shoulder length hair which curled in all the right ways, and the warmest, honey-colored eyes that seemed to smile along with her lips. She wore just enough mascara that Cherry could see each individual eyelash, her lips had a slight rosy tint, matching her equally subtle blush on her cheeks. A blood-red ruby hung from a gold chain from her neck, complimenting the baby pink and white she wore perfectly. She wore the most darling pink and white dress that flared out at the waist with white Doc Martens laced up by matching pink laces. She looked just darling. She looked like just Cherry’s type. 

“Hey, sorry, am I bothering you? I can come back later?” The girl said in the sweetest sounding voice. 

Now, Cherry didn’t usually ever stumble on her words, especially around pretty girls. She was actually quite the Casanova with the ladies, if she did say so herself. But there was something about the girl’s honey eyes and sickly-sweet smile that made Cherry stutter and trip over her tongue. 

“Uh - um...no…” Cherry racked her brain for words to use, but her knowledge of the English language was failing her. 

The girl laughed slightly and said, “I just wanted to come over and say that I liked your hair, but then I saw the book you were reading and…and well I know a bit about vampires and i guess I just wanted to start a conversation with you because I thought you were kinda cute…”

The girl fidgeted with her hands and looked down at her shoes, her blush deepening on her cheeks. 

God, Cherry could just...God.

Cherry just kind of sat there until she realized that it was her turn to talk. Embarrassed and so utterly flattered, Cherry’s heart beating at an unnatural pace, she finally spoke. 

“Oh, really...sit - sit down, yeah.” Cherry pulled the chair out next to her and gestured for the pretty girl to sit down. “So, what’s your name?” Asked Cherry.

“I’m Jane.” Jane replied, the faintest smile still on her lips.

She did look like a Jane, Cherry thought. It was a sweet name for a sweet-looking girl. 

“Such a sweet name for a sweet-looking girl.” Yes, Cherry did just repeat what she thought out loud, it was a good line. Cherry jumped up and down and high-fived herself in her head. 

Jane blushed and the smile on her rosy lips widened. 

“You’re too kind...” She looked at Cherry, as if asking for something. 

Cherry wanted to whack herself in the head, Jane was trying to ask for Cherry’s name. How could Cherry forget to tell this beautiful, wife-material, girl her name? 

“Cherry,” Cherry said quickly, slightly embarrassed that it took her so long to figure out what Jane was trying to ask.

“You’re too kind... Cherry. What a fitting name. It’s cute.” Jane smiled and reached out and picked up the string to Cherry’s sweatshirt and twirled it around her finger. 

Cherry started to internally freakout. What is happening? Is she flirting? Is she just being nice? Cherry was so damn oblivious sometimes.  
Jane smiled sweetly at Cherry and dropped Cherry’s sweatshirt string from her hand. Jane turned her body to face forward at the table and took the book that Cherry was reading and flipped through the pages. 

“Okay, so, Cherry,” She said her name like it was something exotic and new and interesting. Cherry loved the ways he spoke. “You want to learn about vampires, right?” 

Cherry nodded, her bright hair getting in her eyes slightly. 

“Now, may I ask why?” Jane’s eyes flashed with a child-like curiosity.

“No reason, really. I mean, I’m just interested to know about them, but obviously I know they’re not real.” Cherry nervously laughed. She was starting to over-explain herself in a futile attempt to seem not crazy in front of the pretty girl. 

Jane laughed lightly at Cherry’s struggle to explain herself. 

“It’s fine. It’s interesting stuff, I mean, a person who lives forever who doesn’t need to eat, sleep, or go in the sun - it’s scientifically fascinating!” Jane was beaming, her eyes full of life and luster. She was very passionate about this subject, that much was clear.

Jane flipped open the library book that she leafed through earlier and settled on a page titled “Vampires and You: Your Potential Relationships With the Undead” 

“This is what you would need to know if you ever were to actually meet a vampire in your travels, Cherry, dear.” 

Cherry propped her chin in her hands and stared into Jane’s honey-tinted eyes. She was practically mesmerized by Jane’s voice and the way her lips moved and how her dress bunched up around her stomach when she sat, and how she crossed her legs, and how her hair swayed when she moved her head and - God, Cherry was already in deep with this girl.

Cherry just thought that Jane was just so damn pretty.

***

 

“And that’s what you do when you see a vampire in an alley at night!” Jane said with a smile as she shut the book she was referring to with a slam. 

“Wow, uh, thank you for...um...taking the time to teach me all this! I really appreciate it.” Cherry said awkwardly. Cherry could not get over how attractive Jane was. It was weirdly debilitating to Cherry. Weird.

Jane looked down at her shoes and smiled as she stood from her chair. Jane brought her eyes up, batting her long eyelashes at Cherry. Was this flirting? 

“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind doing something like this again with a handsome girl like yourself.” Jane leaned over Cherry’s shoulder and wrote something down on a piece of paper. She folded it once and looked Cherry in the eyes. Cherry looked back and almost got lost in them.

“Well, I’ll see you around, Cherry.” Jane leaned down and kissed Cherry on the cheek and handed Cherry the piece of paper.  
Jane walked away, out of the library, leaving Cherry stunned, lovestruck, dumbfounded, and with some new knowledge on vampires. 

Nice.

Cherry looked at the folded piece of paper in her hand. She thought that maybe it was Jane’s phone number or something. Cherry opened it to find not a phone number, but an address and a time. A date maybe? Jane wrote in neat handwriting where she dotted the I’s with hearts:

“9 Sheffield Ave.  
11 pm tomorrow  
I’ll see you, handsome girl.”

God, Cherry practically was swooning over here. If someone looked over at her, they probably could see the hearts in her eyes right then. Cherry couldn’t contain her excitement. She didn’t really know who or where else to go to, so she decided to head towards Jinx’s house, despite how pissed she was at him. 

Cherry quickly collected her things and hoofed it over in the direction of the neat house on the corner of Winter Street and Windsor Road.

People stared at Cherry as they always did. They would lean over and whisper to whoever they were with, staring at Cherry as they pointed out all of her abnormalities. 

How she was different, how she looked different, how she loved differently. 

The people in this town were bullshit with the way that Cherry was so unapologetically her that they either shut her out, or openly harassed her about it. 

The sun was now low on the horizon as Cherry stomped her way down the street, ignoring the jeers of the townsfolk around her. 

Cherry had in a way gotten used to the slurs thrown at her, Hell, she sometimes laughed at the strangers yelling “Dyke!” out their windows, like they knew anything about Cherry, other than the outward, goth appearance. 

The comments usually didn’t bother Cherry. She sometimes eve laughed at the words they said. Sometimes what they said was genuinely funny. One time a guy out of his truck window yelled at her that she was a “Squid-looking carpet muncher” 

It made no sense. Cherry did not look like a squid. A cow, maybe, but definitely not a squid. It wasn’t even accurate. He seriously needed to work on his insult game, in Cherry’s opinion.

A car raced by and Cherry winced, preparing herself almost automatically for the insult that wasn’t thrown at her. She almost gets surprised when people don’t call her a queer or a dyke. 

Cherry had some issues. 

The street that lead up to Jinx’s house was fast approaching and Cherry felt a pang of guilt about how she stormed off on him earlier at 7-Eleven. Cherry figured that she would just buy him a pack of Marlboro blacks and he’ll forgive her without a second thought. Jinx’s house approached quickly. There was a light on in two of the windows on the top floor. It was jInx’s room. 

They were tinted red by the christmas lights Jinx used as decoration to add to the “Edgy factor” of his room (his words, not Cherry’s). Jinx’s house looked like a checkpoint in a video game with the way it was practically glowing in the early hours of dusk. 

The sun was low on the horizon behind Jinx’s house, which kind of came as a surprise to Cherry, because, holy shit, where had the time gone. It seemed like Cherry had lived a lifetime in the few hours that had passed. I mean, she did see someone get staked in the heart the night before, got into an argument with her best friend, and see the prettiest girl she had ever met and learned all about vampires and shit. 

Life was finally picking up in this stupid fucking town.

Cherry groaned as she walked up the stairs to Jinx’s front door. She could practically smell the grape lube and the teenage experimentation from there. 

The dirty guitar and steady baseline told Cherry that Jinx had Corey over - he loved Nirvana. Cherry didn’t bother to even knock on the door because he always left it unlocked. He always told Cherry that he had enough knives to stock an infantry, so Jinx had nothing to worry about. Jinx also loves to tell the story about how one time when his mom was working overnights at Pete’s Diner downtown, someone tried to break into his house, so Jinx took one of his throwing knives and threw one so it pinned the guy’s ear to the doorway. 

Of course, everyone thinks he’s so full of shit, but Jinx said that he is willing to bet his 1965 electric blue Epiphone that he’s telling the whole fucking truth. Everyone also knows how fucking seriously in love he is with his late-grandfather’s guitar, so from time to time we all consider the truth of the matter.  
Cherry opened the door and the loud tune of “Love Buzz” by Nirvana flooded out of the door and swarmed Cherry’s head. She had always loved this song because of how melodic and fucking crunchy the bass line was, whatever the fuck that meant. Cherry sighed as she heard the whacking of Jinx’s headboard against the wall in his room. Fucking Corey. 

Literally.

Cherry usually would leave Jinx to his homosexual endeavors, but this was really important, and she really didn’t like Corey that much to be honest. He was always making Jinx cry and being a fucking douchebag. 

This one time after Jinx and Corey had spent the weekend together at Jinx’s house, Corey decided to completely ghost Jinx and go over and fuck Frank, the town’s most out and most, uh, I guess you could say flamboyant, twink. Every top in a five-mile radius has at least made out with Frank once. 

Jinx was practically inconsolable after that, not that he’d let anyone but Cherry know through his quiet and discreet tears. It sometimes made Cherry sad to think about how Jinx feels like he has to put up an angry and angsty front so people take his five-foot-five stature seriously. Then Cherry remembered how much of a dick Jinx could be and she usually feels better about it. 

Cherry decided to wait until the song was over to go and barge in on Corey and Jinx’s fuck-session. She opened his refrigerator and surveyed the slim selection. There was a bottle of ketchup, an onion, a box of moldy pizza (What the fuck, dude, that’s gross), and two, twenty-four packs of Mountain Dew. Cherry took a can of the radioactive, fucking disgusting soda and started up the stairs to Jinx’s room as the next song started to play.

There was a lot of grunting and a large yell, the bed stopped making the annoying banging sound against the wall and the music cut off abruptly.

This is about the time where the pair would start to assemble their clothing and lay in bed for a smoke. The perfect time to intrude.

Cherry opened Jinx’s door to see Jinx laying in bed, with a cigarette in hand, sheets strewn over his lap and Corey leaning over, tying his shoes, looking eager to leave. 

“Hey, fuckass,” Cherry offered as her only introduction as she cracked open her Mountain Dew can.

Corey looked up from tying his shoe and made a disgusted face. God, Cherry fucking hated his guts.

“Oh, fucking, you again.” Corey said with a sneer. He was such a bitch. “You know, Cherry, he’s gay, he wont fuck you. So you can close your legs and go home.”

Fucking Corey.

“Oh, eat my ass, Corey, go get pegged by your dad.” Cherry rolled her eyes and made a shoo-ing motion at him. He left and bumped Cherry’s shoulder, muttering something under his breath about “fucking dykes…”

Cherry looked at Jinx sprawled out on his bed, sheets barely covering his junk. Cherry laughed a bit on the inside. Jinx was fucking crazy but she loved him nonetheless. Not to mention that it did help that his room was something of a punk-marvel. 

He had red christmas lights strung along the edges of the wall, wrapping around his room, which was an impressive size to say the least.  
Jinx had at least 150 posters in his room, all for different punk bands in the local scene, all with obscene images of gore, sex, and drugs all in either red, black, white, or green. He, of course had some classics like the Misfits, Black Flag, and The Clash on his walls. There were three windows in his room, all with the blinds broken, bent, and all uneven. He had a red, plaid bedspread that had been discarded on the ground with the evening’s festivities and his white sheets were far from white with all the  
blood, cum, and food he’s spilled on them. His room was just so him. 

And on the wall above his Orange Amp were his two broken Fender guitars, his white Les Paul, and his grandfather 1965 electric blue Epiphone. He didn’t let anyone go fucking near that thing. He’d cut his dick off sooner than let someone so as much as breathe on that fucking guitar.

“Why are you still fucking Corey, he’s such a bitch.” Cherry said as Jinx smirked at her from his blissed out state.

“He may be a bitch, but it doesnt change the fact that he-”

“Okay! Well,” Cherry was quick to interrupt that thought, because Jinx has no shame whatsoever and Cherry knows that. If you asked, Jinx would describe the exact way he took a shit that morning, or how his ass hairs tangle too easily. He was a character, to say the least.

“So you know how youre a bitch and dont believe me when I said that i saw someone get staked in the heart last night?” Cherry continued as Jinx took a slow, lethargic drag of his cigarette, looking exasperated at the subject.

“Yes, i remember, but i am not a bitch.” Jinx was smiling out of amusement now because he was, in fact, a bitch.  
Cherry popped her hip out and put her hands on her hips. She just wanted Jinx to shut the fuck up and listen for once in his life. Jinx rolled his eyes and beckoned for  
Cherry to go on.

“So,” Cherry sighed and paused when she saw Jinx stifling a laugh.

“I’m sorry, this is just so fucking stupid, man,” Cherry gave Jinx with a half annoyed, half disappointed look. “Oh my God, fine Cherry, go on.”

“Fucking, thank you, ass lord.” Cherry inhaled and kind of let the rest just fucking flow right out, like word puke or some shit. Cherry told him everything about Jane and went into extreme detail about how hot she was, which prompted a deep eye roll and a playful smile. Then Cherry pulled out the scrunched up piece of paper that Jane gave her and showed Jinx.

“So then she kissed me on the cheek and just gave me this fucking paper…”

Jinx took the paper from Cherry’s hand, stubbing his cigarette out on his headboard.

“So, you’re actually gonna meet this girl there or - ?” Jinx shot Cherry a quizzical look, knitting his eyebrows together.  
Cherry hadn’t actually realized how fucking dangerous this was and how it could go wrong in so many ways. What if Jane fucking staked her in the heart or fucking raped her or some shit. Cherry shuddered at the thought. She really had been blinded by her lust. 

Huh.

“Oh...well…” Cherry exhaled softly. “Yeah! I think I’m gonna go…” Cherry trailed off. Maybe she shouldn’t go. Or maybe just not alone. She could persuade Jinx to come by baiting him with some Marlboro Blacks or some shit like that.

He was a simple man.

Cherry looked at Jinx and smirked. Jinx was very focused on the pattern of his bedsheets. Jinx didn’t notice what Cherry was trying to insinuate with her look until the silence drew his eyes up to meet Cherry’s. 

“No!” Jinx shot back up. “No, I’m not going to that fucking building! I don’t know what the fuck is going to happen there! You said that you saw someone get fucking staked in the heart to death outside of your fucking house and then -!” Jinx took a fucking breath, his face red and getting sweaty. Jinx calmed down. Finally.  
Cherry was considering saying something thoughtful, maybe about how it would be beneficial to have Jinx accompany her on her treacherous journey to meet the mysterious, but beautiful Jane. 

But then Cherry remembered that Jinx admitted that he believed that she saw someone get staked to death and her heartfelt sentiment was as good as gone now.

“Oh! Yes, I knew it you fucking bitch!” Jinx looked a little confused as to what Cherry meant by this, then his face lit up. He opened his mouth to argue, but Cherry quickly kept talking. “You believed me! No - don’t deny it! I heard it come out of your mouth!” Cherry was smiling now, this made up for Jinx being an ass earlier.

Jinx let his face fall back down into fake indignance. Both Cherry and Jinx knew that they were even. The pair held eye contact for thirty seconds, Jinx trying to stay mad as Cherry make dramatic puppy dog eyes and pouty lip to get him to crack.  
Jinx was the first to break, cracking a slight smile, then letting his front down and breaking out into a fit of laughter. Cherry quickly followed suit.  
Big belly laughs and the sound of the pair gasping for air filled the room. 

God, Cherry loved this bitch. Jinx was forgiven and Cherry likewise. 

After the two stopped laughing, Cherry opened her mouth to speak, closed it, opened it once again, then settled on taking a sip of her Mountain Dew and sat on a beanbag chair by Jinx’s cracked mirror propped up against the wall. She cringed at the nuclear-sugary flavor and stuck her tongue out at her can. 

“Why’d you open up the can if you’re just gonna waste it, man! I don’t have anything except like a fucking onion in there to eat!” Jinx said playfully while smiling.

Cherry rolled her eyes and took a sip to show that she was not, in fact, going to waste his one source of sugar that he would get in his limited diet.  
They sat in their respective spots for a few minutes in comfortable silence until Jinx decided to pull on his clothes, prompting Cherry to begin her pitch to get Jinx to come with her to meet her mysterious friend at the potentially very dangerous and scary building at almost midnight.

This was going to be a tough one. 

Cherry took a deep breath and took one small sip of her Mountain Dew. 

“Okay, so,” Jinx shot Cherry a glance that was a mix between both anxiety and annoyance. “Hear me out, okay man?” Cherry afforded Jinx a pleading look, Jinx softened his features and made a “carry on” gesture with his hands. 

Cherry rolled her eyes. “Can you please come with me, so I don’t fucking die?” 

“What’s gonna fucking stop her from killing both of us? What does she and her fucking army of crazy people with stakes and shit care about one extra body to dispose of?”

“Okay, so I don’t die alone then. Better?” Cherry said a little too nonchalantly as she took another pained sip of her drink. 

Jinx’s eyes were basically in the back of his head at this point with the amount of times he had rolled them within the last like, ten minutes. Cherry continued to look at Jinx with an expectant expression. Jinx’s angry facade faltered.

“I hate you, you know that, right?” Jinx said in an endearing tone. Cherry nodded and waved her hand as if this was a simply known fact.  
His angry façade faltered and Jinx rolled his eyes once again. 

“Fine.” Jinx simply said.  
Cherry knew that if she said anything more that she would be pushing it. Jinx doesnt like to go against what he believes is right, because he’s a stubborn-ass Taurus.

They both sit there in silence for a while, Cherry not wanting to undo what she just convinced Jinx of and Jinx not wanting to admit that Cherry was right about the whole stake thing. Cherry eventually topped off the last sip of her drink, crushed the can noisily and threw it at Jinx’s headboard behind his head. 

“Hey, man,” Followed up Cherry with the clatter of the can. Jinx lifted his eyes to meet Cherry’s. “Do you remeber when we were in like, I think it was seventh grade -” 

“Oh, God, dont mention seventh grade, dude. You know all i can think of is, like, my fringe and my scene phase -”

“Because you didnt know how else to express your feelings for boys.” Cherry recited monotonously, as if she’d heard it a thousand times, which she had. 

“Yes! I hated that year it was so fucking bad for everyone. Dont you remember when you dated fucking Luke Fallriver because you didnt wanna be a lesbian and when he  
tried to kiss you, you started coughing in his mouth and he thought that he had fucking, like, ebola because of you and he told his mom-” 

“God! Shut the fuck up, dude!” Cherry and Jinx laughed, thinking about their repressed homosexual feelings that they both had in those awkward, awkward fucking years. Cherry shuddered when she started to actually think about how awkward it was when Luke actually tried to kiss her and she just - man, it was bad. 

“But anyway, remember when we were smoking our first cigarettes that you stole from your mom’s purse outside of school against the playground during third period?” Cherry asked, with a fond smile on her face. She liked this memory. It reminded her of better times, when their biggest problem was that one of them got a fifty on a math test and needed to get it signed.

“Yeah, and Mrs. Dubano caught us and made us eat our fucking cigarettes!” Jinx yelled in repsonse to Cherry. Cherry remembered and cringed at the memory of the gross ash and nicotine taste that still permeates in her memory. It was disgusting.  
Now that Cherry though of it, it probably illegal. What the fuck? 

“Jinx, that shit was definitely illegal.” Not just probably now, it definitely was the more that she thought about it. Huh.

“It sure fuckin was,” Jinx nodded his head and smiled. “It probably was also illegal to make kids with asthma clap erasers as a punishment, too,” Jinx added.

Cherry remembered when Jinx and her were made to clap erasers because of their consistent interruption of the class that day and Jinx was very asthmatic as a child. So as they were well into the eraser clapping, the chalk dispersing in the air, Jinx began to cough a little bit every few minutes. Then it became more regular, a few times every minute or so. Then, at one point, Cherry looked over at Jinx and he was blue in the face and wheezing louder than Cherry thought a human could. Jinx almost fucking died of an asthma attack then, and he stilled smoked cigarettes after that. He grew out of his asthma, but man, he really toughed it out in the name of his nicotine addiction. 

That’s real dedication right there. 

Cherry stood abruptly. 

“Do you have anything to do later on, or do you wanna come spend the night at mine?” Jinx looked like he was playing a video in his mind about the possibilities of  
either way the night could go for him. Cherry added in a sing-song tone, “I’m gonna meet up with Rosie to get some good shit.” 

“I’ll meet you at yours, I need to wash the fucking stench of Corey off me. He didn’t brush his teeth after he went to fucking Chipotle and my asshole is burning.” 

“Okay, yep! I’ll see you in an hour?” Cherry ignored the fucking disgusting image of Corey’s tongue in Jinx’s- “Bye!” Cherry had to interrupt her own thoughts because, fuck, ew. 

Cherry saw Jinx nod and she let herself out of his house. The sun was now completely disappeared below the horizon and Cherry shivered at the sudden coldness of the air. 

Cherry brought the sleeves of her sweatshirt down and over her fists, like paws. Cherry thought of what the hell had just happened in, like, less than twenty-four hours. 

Like, wow. 

She felt as if she had lived a whole lifetime worth of experiences and she still had a good seventy years left still to fit more in. Those years were going to be boring as fuck if this is what’s happening now. Or maybe they’ll be fucking crazy because this is just the beginning of it all. Maybe Cherry is just doomed to a life of mystery and danger and fucking vampires. 

Maybe that’s not too bad, now that Cherry really thinks about it. Vampires are pretty sexy, after all. Vampires are the most desirable monsters to humans for many reasons. Some of which Jane educated Cherry on earlier that day. Vampires were created in the media to be seen as sexy and seductive, so humans would fall in love with them and when they’d go to kiss, the vampire would bite the human’s neck. Cherry thought that a human had to be really dumb and oblivious to not have noticed that their partner had huge fucking fangs and a bloodlust, but to each their own.

Cherry arrived at her home, still deep in thought about vampires and the logistics of their lifestyles. How could they just avoid garlic? Italian food is one of mankind’s greatest inventions, not to mention, mankind’s greatest weakness. It must a be a mundane life without some good rigatoni and garlic bread on Sunday’s. Cherry frowned at the thought of life without her garlicy pleasures and flicked on the lights in her foyer. 

The house was empty, as always. 

It’s not like she wants it to be inhabited by her parents, or siblings that she longed for, but it’s the principle of such things, you know?

Like, Cherry could give less of a shit about her absent mother and father in her childhood and how her only friend was her cousin, Artemis, (yes, after the Greek Goddess, her parents were big into mythology, that is, until they were smashed to bits in an airplane crash on the way back from Cabo, but that’s a whole other story.) had to move away with her grandmother who lived in Florida, nowhere near Cherry’s shitty little picture-perfect suburban New Jersey town, full of egotistical and bigoted assholes, with even more egotistical asshole children who made Cherry’s life hell in elementary school about how her mom and dad never picked her up from school and how Cherry always had holes in her shoes from walking everywhere. 

But, no, yeah, Cherry’s fine. No issues with that whatsoever. Just the principle of it all, that’s it.

Cherry trudged up to her room and plopped herself down on her bed. She hoped that jinx would take his time. Not because she didn’t want to see him, because she loved the shit ut of that kid, but because she needed some time to just fucking lay there and do nothing.   
Her feet ached from all the walking she’d been doing all day, her head ached from all the stress she’d been under suddenly, her stomach ached because of that goddamn nasty Mountain Dew she had earlier. Cherry’s eyes ached, too, from all the social stimulation she had today.  
Cherry flopped onto her stomach, burying her face into her squishy pillow and thinking of Jane.  
Jane with her pretty pink and white dress, Jane with her perfectly cropped hair, Jane with her sickly-sweet smile. Just, Jane. Everything about her was just so damn perfect…

Cherry apparently was tired enough to dose off with her huge boots on, face down on her bed. She awoke to the sound of Jinx yelling for Cherry to “Get your ass down here! I had to climb through your window and I think Mrs. Crawford called the cops!” 

Cherry awoke with a start and jolted out of her bed.   
What the fuck is this, now? Cherry had just gotten to take a fucking breath and this is what happens. Jinx was a fucking handful to say the least.


	2. Ave Maria

Cherry hurried downstairs to see Jinx’s sweaty and flushed face illuminated by blue and red lights. Fuck. The cops were pulled up in their cars, just outside of Cherry’s side door. Fuck. Cherry looked at Jinx with a face full of apathetic agitation. She really didn’t need this to add to her shitty day full of unnecessary challenges and various surprises. Cherry took Jinx’s hand silently and she pulled him toward the door where the cops were. She saw it as having two options: Running away and looking guilty as fuck of a crime they didn’t commit, or calmly (anxiously, let’s be real) explaining the situation to the cops. Cherry decided that Jinx was already in enough legal trouble all the time, so running away would only make his reputation with the cops worse, so she decided the latter.  
Cherry waited for the cops to come up to the door, rather than go outside to meet them, because, you know, cops have fucking guns and are trained to shoot to kill. They pounded on the door and shouted, “Billford Police Department, open up!” with one of the loudest, most authoritative voice that the small man of about 5’4” could probably muster.  
Cherry opened up the door cautiously, making sure that her hands were visible at all times. She made a note to make her movements slow and deliberate, too. The last thing she wanted to do was get shot by the cops right before she was going to buy some good shit from Rosie and before she could really shoot her shot with Jane. She would not get shot by some cop who was barely above the height requirements for being a certified midget.  
Not fucking today, man. Cherry was not having it.  
Though Cherry was very fucking scared that she would die, but she tried to keep her emotions hidden as best as she could. She put on a fake-friendly smile.  
“Hi, how can I help you?” Cherry said in the fakest, politest voice that she could get herself to speak in. She actually surprised herself, to be honest.  
“We got a call from a neighbor that someone had broken into this house…this is your house, right? You are Bethany Dunford…?” Cherry winced at the mention of her birthname. She was named after her mother in a futile attempt to force femininity onto Cherry.  
Fuck that. But Cherry needed to fucking focus right now. Who gives a fuck about the story of how she was named after her succubus of a mother?  
“Yes, I am Bethany Dunford. The person who broke in was Jinx Ballenger. I invited him over and I was sleeping so I didn’t hear him knocking and the door was unlocked so he went through the window. I don’t have a problem with it. He wasn’t breaking in or anything like that. So, uh, yeah…” Cherry trailed off at the end in the way that she does when she’s done presenting a project at school.  
The short cop seemed to be mulling over the information that Cherry presented in a nervous and quick way. He looked at Cherry, then past her at Jinx standing awkwardly in the corner.  
The cop jerked his chin toward Jinx behind Cherry. “That your friend?” This cop must be new on the force. Every cop within a five-mile radius of the town of Billford knew who Jinx was and the extent of all of his offenses.  
“Yes, that is Jinx Ballenger.” Cherry tried to say in a steady, confident voice, but her voice cracked from nervousness. Her stomach had a twinge of anxiety and her palms started to sweat. The quizzical look on the cop’s face didn’t help with her extreme wave of dread that seemed to hit her like a brick in that moment.  
The tiny cop nodded suspiciously and looked past Jinx, scoping out the contents of Cherry’s home. The air was practically buzzing with the anxiety in the room. Cherry felt like she might throw up if the fucking cops don’t leave her fucking front steps pretty soon. She was done with this little fucking interrogation by the tiny fucking cop. She had a small flash of a scenario in her head where she just kicked the midget cop in his ribs and did, like, one of those spy moves and disarmed him and pointed the gun back at all of them, mowing them down in one swift-  
“Okay, seems like everything’s all under control here. You going to be alright, miss?” The midget asked Cherry in a very faked professional voice.  
Cherry shook away that weird vision of her beating the fuck out of the cops and smiled.  
“Yep! It’s all good. Thank you, have a goodnight, sir.” Cherry said and watched the cops all walk away from her front door. Cherry shut the door and turned to face Jinx.  
“What the fuck?”  
Jinx smiled and shook his head. “You weren’t answering the door, it’s not like I haven’t done it a thousand times before now!” Jinx was laughing, Cherry was too. She was angry, irate, even, but she couldn’t really stay too mad at Jinx.  
“It was probably Mrs. Callahan, she’s such a goddamn snitch.” Cherry remarked as she made her way upstairs to grab her wallet. Jinx followed behind her to her room.  
Mrs. Callahan was the neighborhood crazy cat lady. Yes, cats were awesome, and old women can be, too. But, Mrs. Callahan was the worst woman to have walked this earth. Or, maybe just in Cherry’s life at the time. She always called the cops with noise complaints when Cherry let Jinx’s band practice in her garage, which, in all fairness could be sound like actual shit, but still. Let kids be kids, man. She always seemed to be peering out her window, just searching for some kids to bust for doing something or other. It could be illegal, like one of Jinx’s drug deals, which is a warranted police call, but it also could be because one time when Jinx and Cherry lost a ball in her yard and tried to get it once.  
The cops do not need to be involved when a couple of ten-year-olds can’t catch a baseball.  
Cherry sat for a second on her bed as Jinx looked around at her room.  
“Something’s different in here…” Jinx said, to himself. Jinx looked around quizzically with his nose scrunched up and eyes squinted. He had been in Cherry’s room enough times to be able to point out when there was a sock missing from the floor. For a boy, Jinx was very observant.  
Cherry waited for Jinx to notice the absence of one of her Misfits posters and the Korn poster replacing it. The two were similar in color and design: they both had a red and black theme with some sort of cartoonish gore on it, but the Korn one had a lamb on it and the Misfits had a skeleton.  
Jinx noticed.  
“You fucking put up a Korn poster in the spot where The Misfits once was? That’s…a sin.” Jinx was not a fan of Korn, he things that they sound like some knock off version of a punk band that no one except Jinx had ever heard of. Jinx was like that; very opinionated and strong in his views, despite hi being wrong most of the time.  
“You just hate them because you’re so far up Danzig’s ass.” Cherry said back playfully.  
Jinx laughed, “More like Danzig’s so far up my ass because he is so-“  
“You wish, you fucking little pervert.” Cherry said with a smile. This was the peak of their friendship. Yeah, they always made fun of each other and insulted each other, but it was with love, you know how it is.  
Cherry got off her bed and opened the door to leave her room. Jinx followed and they left the house to meet up with Rosie to get the stuff. God, Cherry could not wait to smoke. Cherry had had a day. They started out the door to find Rosie at her regular spot in the parking lot of an abandoned K-Mart parking lot. They sometimes smoked together in the abandoned K-Mart, but after the cops almost caught them a few weeks ago, they’ve decided that it’s too risky to go there so soon. They cant really take any risks with Jinx’s record because at any chance they can, the cops would lock him up in a federal prison, if it weren’t for him being a minor. It’s going to be a dangerous game for Jinx to play after his eighteenth birthday.  
Cherry and Jinx climbed into Jinx’s shitbox car, which had stickers that were half peeled off, covering the dashboard with a hula girl with no coconuts on, swaying from side to side and hanging from her neck on the rearview mirror. Cherry had done many drug deals in this car, mostly with Rosie, but one time when Cherry had to pick up Jinx’s coke from his dealer Angel alone in Jinx’s car because he was grounded, but Corey was coming over, so he needed his coke. Cherry was glad Jinx was off that shit.  
It’s not good for your system, bro.  
Jinx put his car in drive and pedaled off to the K-Mart parking lot. Jinx always put Cherry in charge of the music because he trusted Cherry to play good music, they had at least built up that rapport.  
As the punk music blared, Cherry zoned out while staring out the window, not really looking at anything in particular. Honey-colored, easy eyes popped into Cherry’s mind. Jane’s brown and neatly done hair and color-coordinated outfit and her rosy cheeks and her radiant smile… oh fuck. Cherry was getting fucked up about this girl already. If Cherry was already daydreaming about this girl, having only met her a few hours before, then how the fuck is she going to be able to actually function when they finally fuck? Well, if they did. Cherry tried to focus her attention on the dirty guitar that was playing through the speakers and stay in the moment. Cherry’s therapist said that mindfulness would be of great benefit to her, but Cherry couldn’t see what the problem with her getting no more than four hours of sleep a night worrying about the future was. Getting any more sleep than that leaves Cherry too well-rested…it makes Cherry feel weird when she doesn’t feel like fucking shit.  
“Cherry, can I ask you something?” Jinx said softly as he lowered the volume of the music, snapping Cherry out of her thoughts.  
The tone of Jinx’s voice caught Cherry off guard. He never really spoke to her like this unless something was really bothering him. Cherry shifted her body to face her friend, only to see Jinx’s eyes teary and his face laced with worry. Though it was dark outside, she could clearly see the pain and worry on his face. Cherry’s heart sunk. She had seen Jinx like this only once when his father had left a few years ago when he was fourteen. Jinx cried and cried and Cherry could do nothing for him except be there to wipe his tears. Yes, Jinx was a fucking asshole, but he was an asshole with feelings.  
Cherry tried to make her face look as non-judgmental as possible. “Yeah, of course,” Cherry said in an equally soft voice as Jinx bore.  
Jinx pulled into the K-Mart parking lot and parked under a street lamp. It started to rain. A slow song with a steady drum beat played barely audibly in the background. Jinx took a deep breath and wrung his hands.  
“I…” Jinx looked in his lap. A silent tear rolled down his cheek. “Am I a bad person?” Jinx was serious, completely serious. For once in his life, he wasn’t joking around or making fun of Cherry or talking crudely about his colorful sex life. He was serious, and he was very hurt.  
Cherry had no idea what this could be about. Well, scratch that. Cherry could think of plenty of incidents that could have lead Jinx to wondering if he was a bad person or not, but nothing glaring that happened recently that Cherry could think of. Cherry’s heart sank just a little more. How long had Jinx felt like this?  
“No, Jinx. You’re not. Sometimes you don’t make the best decisions, but that doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person, no.”  
Jinx took a sharp inhale and let a few more tear drops roll down his cheeks and nodded. Jinx looked at Cherry and tried to force a smile, but his lip started to quiver and his nose scrunched up and his eyes squinted and – oh my god, Jinx had reached his breaking point.  
“Jinx, hey, what’s wrong?” Cherry said as she reached out to give Jinx a hug. He leaned his head on her shoulder and let himself cry.  
Cherry really did not know what the fuck to do, or what the fuck was wrong with Jinx. She was very concerned to say the least. Was there something more that was going on? Hold on, that was a stupid question. Of course there was something more going on, Jinx, the loud, crude, and asshole person he was, was breaking down in front of his best friend on his way to buy weed. So, what was going on?  
Cherry held Jinx tightly as he shook. The rain pounded the roof of the car with small tinny sounds as the song ended and the car stood silent. The lamp post shone light softly into the car, illuminating Jinx’s back and showcasing the slight shaking of it from the crying. Cherry held Jinx for a while, but then pulled away to look him in the face.  
Cherry saw his eyes had become red and puffy from crying and his face was streaked with tears and Jinx looked like shit. She felt horrible for her friend, Cherry just wished she could find out what’s bothering Jinx so she could just fix it all for him.  
Jinx took a deep breath and wiped his eyes with his palms and nodded.  
“I’m okay.”  
_________________

“Wake the fuck up, asshole!”  
A shrill, but familiar voice shook Cherry from her barely restful sleep. Cherry had just gotten to sleep just under an hour ago because her brain couldn’t stop and now Jinx was up, so everyone had to be up. Great.  
Cherry wrenched her eyes open and saw Jinx standing over her, wearing his mischievous smile and the same outfit as yesterday. His eyes were a bit swollen, but Cherry wasn’t going to say anything. Jinx would tell her when he was ready to. Cherry sat up and rubbed her eyes. The morning light was shining through the windows brightly, making the mess and chaos of her room even more noticeable.  
“What fucking time is it?” Cherry groaned. Jinx rolled his eyes at her.  
“It’s like 12:30, you lazy fuck! We have a lot of shit to do today!” Jinx screeched as he ripped the covers off Cherry.  
“What the fuck do we have to do today? We don’t go to school.” Cherry got up and walked out of her room and to her bathroom. Her hair was sticking up everywhere and she looked like she had died and crawled back from hell.  
Perfect.  
“Well,” Jinx shouted from her room as he started to pull on his shoes. “You have to meet that girl tonight who is going to kill us both who is also probably a vampire, so we have to go to the church and get some holy water from Father John.”  
Cherry stopped brushing her teeth and turned walked back into her room with her face all foamy and shit.  
“I-What the fuck?”  
They were most certainly not going to the church. That place gave Cherry the creeps and priests are not Cherry’s choice company. She wasn’t a choir boy, but she looked damn well close to one, to be quite honest, and she wasn’t looking to have to punch a holy man in the face for him putting his hand a little too far up her leg while putting the holy spirit inside of her. The whole Catholic church and their celebration songs are so fucking weirdly sexual, too. Don’t even get Cherry started with those songs that are all about putting Jesus inside you and feeling Him in you. It’s fucking weird wording for a people who value virginity so much.  
“I’m not going to let a stranger who is probably a vampire kill us without trying to fight back, so I’m going to the church and you should come to make sure Father John doesn’t diddle me.” Jinx said as Cherry walked back to the bathroom and spit out her toothpaste and slapped on some eyeliner.  
“Fine. But I’m only going so you don’t get diddled, asshole.” Cherry gave in and threw on a new shirt and they were out the door.  
Cherry’s eyes stung as the sunlight hit her face, warming her skin. The New Jersey neighborhood was littered with empty Monster Energy drinks and empty Marlboro packs, as well as White Castle bags and punk ass kids up to no god – like Jinx and Cherry. The air was crisp, and the season was surely starting to change to fall. It gets tits cold in Jersey around this time, but Cherry won’t wear a proper jacket until mid-January when her fingers are purple, and toes are numb. She’s just that type of person in the winter.  
St. Patrick’s church was only three streets away from Cherry’s house, so they decided to ditch Jinx’s shitty car and go by foot, you know, for the environment or some shit like that. It was a big cathedral type thing, with the big bell tower and gothic-style arches, and if Cherry wasn’t so proud, she would have to say that the church’s aesthetics were tight as fuck. The stained glass and the statues of Mary crying with the heart with the seven swords – goddamn, it was so Catholic it was almost goth.  
“So, Jinx, what exactly are we going to say to Father Pedo or whatever? ‘Hey, we haven’t gone to church since Christmas when we were ten and are both blasphemous in our own sinful ways – can we have a gallon of holy water for some vampires?’” Cherry asked in a mocking tone. She really hated some of the plans that Jinx came up with sometimes.  
Jinx looked at Cherry and stopped walking. He was frowning.  
“God, Cherry, could you be more cynical?” Jinx said, but he wasn’t all the way there. They stood for a moment in silence. “I got it.”  
“You got what?” Cherry asked hesitantly. Usually Jinx’s plans were fucking illegal, but maybe he’s had a change of heart (he definitely hasn’t).  
“You can go into confession with Father John and while you’re doing that, I’ll fill up a gallon with holy water. I know where they keep a whole fucking tank of it in the basement.” Jinx started to walk again, with more enthusiasm than before.  
Cherry stayed where she was and kind of just looked at the back of Jinx’s head with disdain. Is this kid alright in the head? They were going to steal from the church.  
“You know, Jinx,” He turned around and faced Cherry with a huge shit-eating grin plastered on his face. “As much as I hate the Catholic church, I don’t feel great about stealing from it. Like, what if it fucks up some holy mojo and my face gets eaten off by the spirit of Jesus or something. Plus, I’m not being alone with Father Pedo –”  
“Father John!” Jinx corrected, annoyed.  
“- Father whatever the fuck, for an extended amount of time, pretending to feel guilty about all the shit I’ve done!”  
“But I’m going to see your fucking vampire girlfriend whose going to kill us tonight!” Jinx whined in response.  
That kid had a point, Cherry could admit. They damn well could die tonight, so what’s a little small talk with a priest whose undressing Cherry with his eyes? If they died tonight, it wouldn’t even matter, so whatever.  
Cherry rolled her eyes and plastered on a fake smile. She wanted to try to seem agreeable because of Jinx’s episode/breakdown he had the previous night. Cherry still hadn’t asked Jinx what the fuck that was about, but now was definitely not the time. Jinx had started to walk away quickly, growing bored and frustrated with Cherry’s indignance.  
“Fuck, okay fine.” Cherry said with a sigh.  
Jinx stopped walking and turned around. He had an annoyed, but determined look on his face and his body was facing the church, his neck craned impatiently facing Cherry behind him.  
“Then let’s fucking go, asshole.” Jinx said back with a chuckle. He was acting like an asshole, but Cherry could tell that he was smiling as he walked away. Jinx was like that. He’d rather punch you out to show that he was grateful than crack a genuine smile around you. This poor kid was so fucking out of touch with his emotions.  
So Cherry nodded and rolled her eyes, exasperated at the idea of having to interact with the priest and the whole plan of getting holy water, too. In Cherry’s opinion, this all was so unnecessary; she had planned to sleep for the whole day and then get up around three or four in the afternoon, eat some breakfast/dinner and then fuck off to the address that Jane had given her. That’s usually the plan for Cherry’s days, but Jinx usually disrupts her plans almost every day.  
That fucking kid, man.  
The church had white siding which was peeling off in some places. Six huge, stained glass windows lined the two sides of the church perpendicular to the wooden front door. The church tapered off to a steeple with a golden painted cross on the apex of the steeple. The roofing was black and fading, Cherry could tell that the building was old as fuck. The concrete steps leading up to the large oak door were full of cracks and that hand rails were rusted. The Catholic church was losing funding and it was no mystery to the public.  
Religion as a whole is dying out, especially Christianity, but that’s a whole other thing.  
Cherry walked up the cracked steps and observed the tallest peak of the roof. The cross was adorned with Catholic symbolism which Cherry didn’t understand what meant. The old oak doors creaked open, cold and musty air rushed out of the dimly lit church.  
The ceilings were high and the walls were faded and cracked. The stained glass windows were dark, and depicted images of crying Mary, solemn angels, and a bleeding Jesus. The pews were in neat rows, in the old, and oddly bright orangey wood from the seventies stood innocently in the church. The lights were on dimly and the natural light barely shone through the dank stained glass. It was ghostly in there.  
Each step that Cherry and Jinx took was muted by the old carpet on the floor. They drew closer to the back of the church, behind the altar. As they approached, Cherry noticed how a crucified Jesus hanging from the ceiling above the altar seemed to be watching them. His emaciated frame and bleeding hands and watchful eyes bore into the back of Cherry’s head.  
This place was fucking creeping her out. She just wanted to get the fuck out of there.  
Though Jesus was behind her now, Cherry felt his eyes on her.  
Her shoe was untied. She needed to tie it.  
“Hey, Jinx, hold the fuck up.” Cherry whisper-yelled to an annoyed Jinx.  
Jinx turned around and looked behind him. Cherry stooped down and picked up her untied shoelaces. There was a song that she used to sing to herself when she was younger to remember how to tie her shoes. Now that Cherry thinks about it, it was from Spongebob. It went something like, You gotta take a lace in each hand You go over and under again You make a loop de loop and pull And your shoes are lookin' cool-  
Just as Cherry double-knotted her shoe, the oak door slammed.  
The two whipped their heads around to see the priest walking in with a stern look on his face.  
Oh fuck, Cherry thought, he is in a bad mood, he is going to kill them. That man is going to murder Cherry and Jinx both because they aren't being very Christian-like children and then he’s going to diddle Jinx and -  
“Hi, Father John! How are you?” Jinx called suddenly. Cherry stood abruptly and shot Jinx a scared look of confusion. What the fuck was this kid doing? He was trying to get them killed. Or he was incredibly stupid, so nothing new going on. That kid had half a brain cell left. Why the fuck would this kid yell across the fucking church to this fucking little boy diddler? That priest was going to kill them.  
“Hi, my child. What’s your name?” Father John replied monotonously and exhaustedly. He had a tired expression on his face. Oh god.  
“I-I’m Jinx. I was an altar boy like eight years ago-” Jinx sounded like he was a little upset. Jinx didn't like to feel like he was forgotten because he seldom was. How could anyone forget him? Why did he sound so nervous too? Where did his arrogant confidence in his stupid plan go? This was not good at all.If Jinx was nervous that means that Cherry should be having a panic attack right now.  
But as Cherry stood and kind of observed where she was and what her situation was at the moment, she started to feel a strange, but almost debilitating sense of dread. The windows were almost blocking the outside world, the floor was dusty, Jesus’ emaciated and dead frame was haunting her, following her every move, and Jinx was fucking shaking. What did he sense that Cherry couldn't?  
There was a chill. The oak doors were sealed, the windows were shut, and Cherry had a chill in her bones. Something was wrong. Cherry shivered and she shot a pleading look at Jinx for him to shut the fuck up and leave - they could get holy water from another church - but Jinx looked her straight in the eyes, his filled with fear, and he kept talking.  
“I was wondering if there were any events in which i could volunteer because I haven’t been the best Catholic over the past few years, y’know?” Jinx said, walking toward an exasperated priest.  
Cherry looked over at the priest and realized that the cold and eerie feeling of dread wasn’t coming from him - it was something behind him. The oak doors has crept open and in scuttled a large man, dressed solidly in black, his stature intimidating on its own, without the look of apathy mixed with homicidal ness that was plastered on his face. His hair was shaggy and a little overgrown, his shoes exceptionally shiny, and his jacket zippered all the way up. Cherry and he made eye contact - well, more or so looked through her and then swiftly made his way over to where Cherry stood, the cold feeling coursing through her at this point. Cherry looked over at Jinx who was talking up the priest. At this point Cherry was supposed to be slipping away, pretending to go to the bathroom and steal some holy water in her flask that she shoved into her sweatshirt pocket, similarly to all the times she would do so with alcohol in the grocery store. It was supposed to be a smooth, poorly thought out plan, but ultimately work out in their favor at the end. But now Cherry has fucking Ted Bundy heading straight toward her and she has a friend whose bound to be either cursed by god or molested.  
The plan wasn’t fucking working.  
So the Ted Bundy looking dude’s facial expression changes in a matter of seconds as he is within a yard of Cherry. He switches from homicidal, apathetic asshole to a charming and smiling, happy man. He extends his hand and flashes his fucking sharp-ass teeth at Cherry in an attempt to smile in a friendly way.  
“Hi, I’m Nathan Geoffery,” His hand stayed suspended in air for a few more agonizingly long moments. Cherry fucking did not want to touch this guy, but he didn't seem like he was going to put it down.  
Cherry put her hand in Nathan’s to find that it was ice cold. It wasn’t below forty degrees fahrenheit outside. Oh fuck.  
Fuck. Fuck!  
Cherry had just used her combined braincell that her and Jinx share and put two and two together. The fake personality, the cold ass hands, the sharp ass smile. Nathan was a vampire. Cherry felt like an idiot. Nevermind the combined braincell, she has half of one.  
Nathan looked at Cherry with the sickeningly endearing smile and an expectant expression. Why does Cherry always forget to introduce herself to new people?  
“I’m Cherry…” She said quietly, and narrowed her eyes at Nathan. She was curious as to why this guy was talking to her right now. Isn’t church like quiet time for guilty Catholics or something?


End file.
